Decai Middle School

"Bang!"

With a loud noise, the huge spotlight suddenly lit up. The dazzling light as bright as day dispelled the darkness, and everything was instantly visible.

Wen Jianyan shrank back subconsciously and raised his hand to block the sudden glare.

[The next live broadcast will start in five minutes.]

An emotionless female voice rang out, and the harsh sound rolled, echoing in the narrow space.

Wen Jianyan blinked his eyes after a brief glance. Although there was still a buzzing sound in his ears, the chaotic light spots gradually dissipated.

…What's going on?

After a few seconds, his eyes finally got used to the harsh light.

This was a room with a size of no more than five square meters.

He was now standing in the center of the room, with nothing beside him. The walls on all four sides were completely transparent, and a bright red countdown flashed on the glass, which was slowly moving around him at the moment.

[04:25]

Four minutes and twenty-five seconds.

The numbers decreased evenly, giving a sense of imminent uneasiness.

"..."

Wen Jianyan stared thoughtfully at the camera in the room for two seconds.

Immediately afterward, he retracted his gaze, stepped forward slowly, and looked out through the gap between the numbers.

Outside was a boundless pure white space, with hundreds of identical small rooms floating. There was a person locked in each room, and a bright red countdown was displayed on the wall.

Outside the small room, there were large and small cameras in all directions. Some were as tall as a building, some needed to be carried by several people, and some were only the size of a palm. Countless metal circles flashed with a strange luster under the light, silently aiming at the prisoners, giving them the feeling that they were being watched by aliens.

It was downright creepy.

The prisoners in the small rooms all had different expressions.

Wen Jianyan found that all the trapped people in the nearest rooms were pale, dazed, and frightened. Some curled up in the corner of the room, some collapsed in fear, some were screaming hysterically under the weird camera, and some were beating the transparent wall.

The glass blocked all the sounds.

It was like watching an absurd pantomime.

The people in the distance were expressionless, waiting calmly for the countdown to end.

At this moment, a lively voice sounded, interrupting Wen Jianyan's thinking.

"Hello, new anchor, I'm your personal assistant and will serve you from today."

Wen Jianyan was startled and turned to look in the direction of the voice.

He saw a light screen of the size of a palm appear in front of him, with his resume printed on it.

Photos, names, and even… his life history.

It was detailed and comprehensive, covering almost his entire life. Even including the experience that did not belong to the name "Wen Jianyan", but which he had actually experienced and no one knew except himself.

Wen Jianyan pursed his lips subconsciously, looked down at lines, and paused for a few seconds on the last sentence of his resume.

——Sign a soul contract with the Nightmare Live Studio and become an active rookie anchor.

The voice sounded again:

"I'm opening an E-level live broadcast room for you…"

"The exclusive live room 789326qwk has been opened!"

The empty live broadcasting backstage appeared on the light screen, and the number of online viewers was displayed in the lower right corner: 0

"That… can I ask a question?"

Wen Jianyan had a good voice. It was shallow, magnetic, and soft, and could become low and ambiguous with a little pressure. If he controlled the rhythm of articulation, he could easily gain the favor and trust of almost anyone.

"Of course."

The young man raised his eyes.

His eyes were of a gentle amber color. Under the strong light, the color appeared a little light, and there was a strong sense of deceptive harmlessness. He frowned slightly, and there was a bit of well-controlled distress in his eyes:

"Can I change the name of the live broadcast room?"

He seemed a little embarrassed and shyly added:

"The name is so ugly now."

"..."

This type of question should not be asked in such a situation at all.

After a short pause of a few seconds, the smart assistant replied:

"Not for now."

"However, after reaching a certain amount of points in the account, the system store will be opened for you, and you can spend the points to buy a renaming card."

The other party didn't seem to have any malice at all and continued happily:

"I hope to serve you again."

"Thank you."

Wen Jianyan raised his eyes, looked at the camera, and smiled briefly and happily.

The thin and light red lips formed a small arc, revealing a smile from the heart, and the dark pupils shrank under the strong light, appearing sincere and genuine.

"I also hope to see you soon."

The scarlet countdown on the glass wall finally reached zero.

The voice resounded again, echoing in the empty white world, as if it was being surrounded by layers from all directions, deafening and terrifying:

[Welcome to the Nightmare live broadcast room, the next live broadcast will start immediately.]

The already dazzling light suddenly became even brighter, frantically overloaded, like countless suns being condensed in a narrow room. The metal circles of the cameras were almost half-melted in the strong light, and the lenses retracted and contracted rapidly as if they were living creatures.

Wen Jianyan had to close his eyes. Across the bright, thin eyelids that were illuminated, the light that made his eyes hurt could not be completely blocked, causing a fine, needle-like pain.

At this time, the mechanical female voice became emotionally vibrant:

[Our aim is to entertain to death!]

***

The live broadcast had started.

There were countless channels connected to the huge live broadcast square. Each channel led to a different live broadcast hall. Each hall was densely packed with countless small screens. The list was hanging in the air, and various scenes were spinning rapidly, waiting to be selected by greedy spectators.

[There are so many new anchors this time, I'm so excited.]

[This is the largest number of new people introduced to the live broadcast room, right? I have never seen so many live broadcast halls below level D in the square before.]

[There are so many newcomers, so there should not be many A-level or above hall openings this time, right?]

[I'm so disappointed; what's so good about the newcomers' screaming and running away and not believing in the evil and old tricks? I'll just sit and wait for the old anchors to start the broadcast.]

[Of course, the old anchors are very entertaining. But after all, they are all familiar faces, and I'm tired of watching them.]

[Moreover, the expressions of despair and collapse of those newcomers after realizing their current situation… I really can't see enough of it.]

[Hahahahahahahahaha, screams, and blood also has their charms.]

Among them, a live broadcast hall named "Decai1 Middle School" opened.

The blood-red color logo flashed under the instance's name.

Instance Difficulty Level: D

The Highest Unlocking Progress in History: 72%

Viewing Value: E

At the bottom, there was a small sign with several lines of text written in bronzing words:

For your and others' viewing experiences, please follow the rules in the live broadcast room, and no spoilers are allowed in the barrage.

After a brief period of dizziness, Wen Jianyan opened his eyes.

The overhead fan creaked and whistled, emitting an exhaustive hum. Looking at it for too long could make people feel dizzy.

The young man had broad shoulders and long legs. He was lying on the narrow bed, feeling a little restrained.

He sat up and looked around silently.

This was an old-fashioned student dormitory. The walls were crooked and dirty, covered with wallpaper of no apparent original color, and filthy dark brown and dirty yellow water stains were seeping from below.

In the narrow room, there were four bunk beds, and the rust-red color was peeling off from the iron armrests.

A mirror with a missing corner was attached to the cabinet on the opposite bed. The surface of the mirror was dirty and had greasy handprints, and in the dim light, only a vague figure could be seen in it.

On the table beside him were piles of messy books, covered with dust.

Wen Jianyan was lying on the bottom bunk of one of the beds.

There was an indescribably strange smell in the air that made it hard to breathe.

In the lower right corner of his line of sight was a translucent light screen.

[Live room 789326qwk]

[Status: On air]

[Online viewers: 3]

The number of online viewers fluctuated between 0 and 3.

No one posted any comments in the barrage, as if they were just clicking in to watch like a bored audience.

There was no one else in the room besides him.

Wen Jianyan lowered his eyes, and long, straight eyelashes cast a little shadow on his white face. There was no emotion on his face, and he seemed to be extremely calm.

He rolled over, got out of bed, and then——

He started retching while leaning on the table beside him.

The back of the young man's shirt trembled slightly with the sound of vomiting; the arm holding the edge of the table exerted force, and the blue veins burst out on the well-defined forearm.

After a long time, he finally stopped.

The mask of ease and calmness at the beginning was shattered and disappeared like melting snow. The corners of the young man's eyes were wet and red, and the previously calm and unwavering facial features instantly became fresh and vivid, appearing particularly fragile and helpless in the dirty mirror.

That's right.

What calmness, what composer… It was all fake!

Wen Jianyan's inner activities were completely incompatible with the above adjectives.

Any normal person would be frightened when they saw the previous scene!

The red color countdown, a broadcast full of malice, and strange cameras—no matter how you look at it, it looked like a scene that only appears in a horror novel! Not to mention how scary it was!

Moreover, he was the kind of person who cherishes his life the most!

However, over the years of his career, Wen Jianyan developed the habit of being impeccable no matter how scared he was in his heart or how much pressure there was from the outside world.

It could be said that the more desperate he was, the calmer his face became.

Otherwise, he would have been put into a cement bucket and drowned in the sea as early as 800 years ago.

Wen Jianyan was a professional fraudster. On the night after completing the biggest order of his life and successfully knocking out a huge sum of 2 billion from a transnational smuggling group, he became a new anchor in the horror live broadcast room without any warning.

"..."

Who else in the world was more unlucky than him?

Wen Jianyan's facial features crumpled into a mess, suppressing the frustration surging in his heart.

He wiped the corners of his mouth and straightened up.

At this moment, the emotionless voice sounded again:

[In order to improve your live broadcast experience, the live broadcast room will personally customize a unique novice gift for you according to the quality of the anchor's soul!!]

In such an infiltrating environment, the mechanical sound this time seemed even stranger.

However, the keywords "soul quality" and "personal customization" in this passage immediately made Wen Jianyan feel extraordinary.

He subconsciously let out a slight breath.

Based on years of professional experience, this so-called "novice gift" was likely to play a crucial role in his future.

[Ding! The novice gift package has been delivered, does the host want to open it?]

Wen Jianyan calmed down and said, "Open it."

He saw a flash of light on the screen in front of him, and a colorful gift box popped open automatically.

In the lively sound effect, the gorgeous long silk was automatically torn off, the gift box bounced open with a "bang", and the animation interface disappeared, revealing—a flower pot.

The earth-gray flower pot and the brown-black soil—it was unremarkable and had no distinctive features.

Aside from that, it was completely empty.

Wen Jianyan: "..."

What?

He poked at the flower pot on the screen incredulously, hoping to find something else.

A line of text popped up.

[Product Name: Apple Seedling]

Wen Jianyan: "..."

So, this was the gift package that was customized according to the attributes of the soul, which was very intimidating to hear, but in reality, it was just an apple seedling that hadn't sprouted yet.

What rubbish!

This was a newbie gift?

Are you sick?!

Wen Jianyan closed the light screen expressionlessly.

He raised his head, subconsciously sweeping the place where he had just laid with his peripheral vision, and his gaze couldn't help but pause slightly.

A card lay quietly on the pillow.

The card was thin, about the size of a palm, with straight edges—not paper, but more like metal.

Wen Jianyan hesitated for two seconds, then stepped forward and carefully picked up the card.

[Identity Card]

Name: Cheng Wei

Age: 16

Occupation: First-year high school student of Decai Middle Schoo

Related Plot: Not unlocked

Wen Jianyan turned the card over.

There was also a line on the back: Initial survival time allocation….

Wen Jianyan: ??

He flipped the card over and over a few times but didn't find any other information.

That's it?

Wen Jianyan frowned and raised his head suspiciously.

The moment he looked up, his heart jumped. The cabinet door on the opposite bed seemed to slide open slightly more than before, and the mirror hanging on it happened to be facing him directly.

Wen Jianyan could clearly see the reflection of his face. As well as…

Under the bed, he was just lying, there was a smiling pale face. Pure black eyes stared straight at him, and the corners of the lips on the face that looked like a mask gradually widened——

At that moment, Wen Jianyan felt a layer of cold sweat on his back.

His heart was pounding like it was going to pop out of his chest.

——Aaaaaahhhhhhhhhh!!!!

However, in the next second, the blurred face disappeared into the darkness. Just like an illusion, it disappeared without a trace in an instant.

The screen, which had been silent for a long time, finally made some noise. Several comments drifted sporadically.

[He didn't even make a sound, the anchor's psychological quality is good.]

[I was frightened.]

Wen Jianyan: "….."

No, I just had a calm face. In fact, my legs were already shaking.

He took a deep breath and glanced down at the card in his hand again. He didn't know when the line on the back of the card had changed.

[Survival time allocation completed.]

Below was the blood-red 20-minute countdown.

The number of people watching the live broadcast unknowingly reached double digits.

[Hey, did I read it right? The survival time of the new anchor is twenty minutes?]

[Lol, what kind of luck is this hahahahahahahahahaha.]

[Is he the only one here in this batch of newcomers? Less than an hour really is too bad.]

[Hahahahahahahaha lol, is this the real hell start?]